Pioneering one-stop residential solar systems provider Sungevity and Holland multinational Rabobank have teamed up to establish a residential solar fund that will support over $50 million of new residential solar lease projects around the US, Sungevity announced today.

Sungevity’s business has been growing fast lately: monthly sales have grown 10-fold since January while employee headcount has tripled to around 300. This year, the Oakland-based company entered into a partnership with Lowe’s and began what’s turning out to be a successful expansion on the East Coast.

“This new fund will support Sungevity’s rapid growth and momentum, and address our project finance needs as we enter the next high growth phase for our company,” Mac Irvin, Sungevity’s CFO, stated. “We are pleased to partner with Rabobank, an established leader in financing renewable energy projects, as we invest further in the residential solar space.”

“Rabobank and Sungevity share a commitment to invest in and develop long-term solutions in the renewable energy sector,” added Edward Levin, Rabobank International executive director. “We are very pleased to provide a financing solution that will allow over one thousand homeowners with access to affordable clean energy.”

Sungevity on the Rise

Overall, Sungevity has raised funds to support over $175 million in residential solar projects and has become one of the nations’ fastest growing solar companies with a presence in eight states including Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Massachusetts, Maryland, New Jersey, and New York, according to the company.

Sungevity’s ability to capitalize on the fast-growing popularity of leasing, as opposed to buying, residential solar photovoltaic (PV) power systems, combined with iQuote – an innovative network information system and service that provides firm price quotes for prospective customers around the country within 24 hours of their being received — has helped fuel the company’s rising fortunes.

Qualifying for state net metering programs, federal and state rebates, tax credits and other solar power incentives is typically a painstaking, cumbersome and lengthy endeavor. Another boost for Sungevity’s business is that the company takes all the processes and paperwork that’s associated with this off its customers hands.

The degree to which Sungevity stands behind its iQuote price quotes also distinguishes the company. Not only are they firm and fast, thanks to a nifty GIS-based (Geographic Information System) solar power potential analytical engine, Sungevity will reimburse customers for any shortfall in the solar PV electricity output of the residential solar systems they lease and have installed.

In 1947, Tennessee Williams’ most famous play, for which he won the Pulitzer prize, arrived on stage. By that same year, 146 streetcar companies around the US had been bought out and liquidated. The operation was backed by suppliers of buses and cars who profited from the demise of the electric streetcar.

The fact that streetcars can be built with lower per-mile costs than other forms of rail transit, their ability to attract denser development in some cases, and the possibility of farming off most of their costs to another government entity has made them incredibly appealing.

…and goes on to caution that, in the rush to capture federal funds, some may not be building the most optimal transit systems. Perhaps with some historical perspective we avoid common mistakes and develop a framework with which to adopt new goals and design new standards giving a clear vision of the future.

Following the Streetcar Tracks?

My father spoke fondly of the streetcars he used to ride as a boy. A friend’s Dad actually bought an old streetcar to restore. We used to go inside only to shake our heads when he wasn’t looking. As we would walk along the former rights of way where tracks had long ago been torn up and sold off, I would wonder, “What is so special about these early electric vehicles that seemed to bring such happy memories.”

The Great American Streetcar Scandal

They were easy to use, inexpensive, clean, quiet, and seemed able to take you anywhere you wanted to go. With over 15,000 miles of track, the US once had the most extensive network of streetcars in the world. We now know that installed infrastructure and older vehicles can have a lower carbon footprint the longer they are used, but in the early part of the last century this was never a consideration. Profits were the individual and corporate prime measure of success, with no thought or regard for the effects on society.

Because this is left to individual conscience and moral action rather than social, public, or corporate policy, it is tempting to pounce upon this documented conspiracy as just one example of psychotic corporate misdeeds. Unfortunately, it just tempts others like the Advanced Transit Association to leap back and focuses our concentration on why we cannot succeed rather than finding the means to do so.

Historically, streetcars are an electrification of horse-drawn cars that operated on mostly buried rails within city streets. The first horse-drawn streetcar service began in NYC in 1832 and began replacing the earlier omnicars that did not run on rails. “Horse cars … provided greater speed and a smoother ride.” By using steel wheels riding on steel rails, the rolling resistance is about one seventh. Far less “horse power” was required. Trains were intended to be intercity routes, while streetcars operated as intracity mass transit among other forms of transportation within city streets.

While, initially, fewer horses were required to operate cars on rails, by 1900, more than 10,000 dead horses had to be removed from NYC streets each year, without counting what the live ones left behind. Congestion and pollution are constant problems on city streets. One solution was a central steam engine and a cable in a trench between the tracks, a cable car. But overhead electric lines already had begun powering the first streetcars in Richmond, Virgina in 1888.

Pantograph drawing power for this EV from overhead wire

The trolleypoles had to always trail the direction of travel while later pantographs were two-directional and dependable at higher speeds.

What is the Difference Between Streetcars and Light Rail or Actual Trains?

Streetcar lines expanded between cities. They also spawned the subways and elevated trains which obtain electricity from an electrified third rail. Unlike the first streetcars, these additions, with their dedicated right of way and less frequent stops, could operate at higher speeds. It has been argued, however, that stop spacing rather than exclusive right of way could be a more useful distinction. When stops are spread out, speed increases and we are then looking at a rapid transit system. Where stops are close together, it can be a better mass transit system to cars and buses.

Nowadays, the main difference between streetcars, light rail, and actual trains is scale, primarily meaning the distance they cover.

…vs the Trolley Bus

Streetcars have the potential of operating like buses, stopping only as needed. Rapid transit will stop at each station, needed or not. Congestion and pollution continue to be urban problems. We can keep cars out of cities only if we can effectively move people into cities and provide an easy way to travel within the city. Electric mass transit has the appeal of being cleaner than internal combustion engine (ICE) buses. Electric rail transit also has a life expectancy up to 8 times that of ICE buses.

Then, there is the trolley bus, that continues using overhead electric, but eliminates the rails and runs on rubber tires. These vehicles, when compared to diesel buses, are about 3-4 times cheaper to operate but about 2 times as expensive to purchase. Like streetcars, power recovered from regenerative braking can be fed back to the overhead wires, saving operating and maintenance costs. Like all electric vehicles, they produce no pollution from the vehicle and no operational pollution at all if the source of the electricity is clean.

Re-routing around traffic, potential power outages, and ice build-up on the lines can be issues for trolley buses. It would be far more difficult to automate (driverless) a trolleybus system than one which had a dedicated rail right of way. Passengers tend to prefer rail systems. Real estate development tends to follow the greater investment in rail lines than the bus routes that can too easily change. Streetcar investments have been shown to stimulate and guide development.

The chinese straddling bus concept

Alternatives to Same Old, Same Old..

Development within an existing city is difficult. The straddling bus is an alternative to elevated roadways. An alternative to rail systems that would be cheaper to build would stretch the “string rail“ between supporting towers. In the US, making transit available to those with disabilities is a concern. Lower streetcars address this issue. But if the efficiency of rails should be sacrificed for tires and we use the option of a trolleybus, then we can also use onboard storage with intermittent charging at stops or wireless technology to transmit the energy to the vehicle. This may also add flexibility and decrease the influence of weather.

A Streetcar Renaissance

A streetcar renaissance in slowly evolving as we discover electric transportation holds many advantages with transmission of the electricity generally cheaper than using battery powered vehicles. It is tempting in a time of limited budgets to spend as little as possible. We need to be wise enough to appreciate when our long-range costs will be lower… and one day Blanche may yet be able to get on A Streetcar named Desire.

It’s abundantly clear that General Electric (GE) sees renewable energy and clean technology as a prime strategic business opportunity in the years ahead. From building the world’s largest wind turbines right on through to manufacturing solar-powered carports and electric vehicle charging stations, the multinational industrial engineering and financial services giant has its fingers in just about every renewable energy and clean tech pie you can think of.

Now, GE is expanding its thin-film solar panel manufacturing business, and in a big way. In April, GE announced its intention to build the US’ largest thin-film solar photovoltaic (PV) panel manufacturing plant, this despite the oversupply and precipitous, 40% price drop that has occurred over the past two years.

Folks out in Denver, Colorado applauded an announcement Thursday night from Gov. John Hickenlooper that GE had indeed chosen Colorado, more specifically the Denver suburb of Aurora, as the site for the nation’s largest thin-film solar manufacturing plant, according to a Denver Business Journal report.

Hotly Contested Bidding

Colorado won the bidding war because “it had a technology head-start and a facility that could quickly be turned into a factory,” Victor Abate, head of the renewable energy business for GE, was quoted as saying in a Denver Post report.

Bidding to be home to GE’s thin-film solar plant has been hotly contested by as many as ten states since GE announced its intentions. Narrowed down to two, Colorado and New York state officials have been working overtime to win the competition.

GE anticipates investing as much as $600 million in building the plant, which is expected to employ 400 workers involved in manufacturing as much as 400-megawatts (MW) worth of thin-film solar panels, enough to power 80,000 homes a year.

PrimeStar Solar Acquisition Paved the Way

That Colorado is home to PrimeStar Solar probably helped that state’s bid. GE’s April acquisition of PrimeStar Solar set the stage for GE’s move into thin-film solar manufacturing.

GE acquired PrimeStar Solar in April prior to announcing its plans to build a thin-film solar PV panel plant. Based in Arvada, Color., another Denver suburb, PrimeStar Solar is a leading developer and manufacturer of thin-film cadmium-telluride (Cd-Te) solar PV cells and panels. These are essentially the same type of thin-film solar cells manufactured by Arizona-based thin-film market leader First Solar.

Most of the raw materials, the Cd and Te, used to manufacture these solar PV cells and panels comes from China.

Record-Setting Cd-Te Solar Panel Efficiency

The US Dept. of Energy’s Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL), also back in April, certified that a Prime Star Cd-Te thin-film solar panel manufactured at PrimeStar’s 30MW manufacturing facility in Arvada reached a record-setting 12.8% aperture efficiency. GE noted that a 1% increase in efficiency translates into approximately a 10% reduction in system cost.

GE and PrimeStar engineers have been working to develop higher-efficiency Cd-Te thin film solar PV cells and panels since GE acquired a majority equity stake in the company in 2008.

"After having completed an exhaustive survey of the PV landscape, we determined that thin films were the optimum path for GE," Danielle Merfeld, GE's solar R&D leader, stated in a March, 2010 press release.

"Specifically, the CdTe technology from PrimeStar has great potential. Bringing together world-class materials expertise, unique materials and systems modeling and design capabilities and state-of-the-art indoor and outdoor solar testing facilities, GE researchers are innovating across our four global research centers—literally around the clock—to deliver a breakthrough product to market."

The following links offer more info on thin-film solar and solar PV investments: